Former Google Intern Says 'The Internship' Is Surprisingly Accurate

"The Internship," this weekend's summer comedy / two-hour ad for Google, is a true recession-era tale. Goofy protagonists Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson aren't trying to get the girl; they want to land a good job. So the old-school salesmen, left behind by the changing American job market, make a midlife career switch and become Google interns.

For the next couple of days, the Hollywood marketing machine will inundate you with ads and reviews about the high-concept movie. AOL Jobs thought we'd offer you a different perspective on "The Internship." Is a job at Google really the new American dream, a place where even aging doofuses, with the right kind of pluck, can reinvent their careers? AOL Jobs watched the movie with real life ex-Google intern Mark Hariz to separate the truth from the spin.

First, the obvious: The whole premise that two middle-aged doofuses -- with no tech skills -- can get internships at what is consistently ranked as the "Best Place to Work" is absurd, Hariz said. "They're fully unqualified," he said, noting that "most of the interns were 20. But there were a couple who were older ... like engineering people in their mid-20s." But you might be surprised by what he did find to be accurate.

Getting assigned random tasks: The intern teams in the film have to complete various tasks, many of which are completely unrelated to each other, from customer support to coding to sales.

"You would never have this nebulous internship that isn't specific to some actual role, like, 'I program things,' or 'I'm a salesperson.'"

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